A Trial by Podcast

On the afternoon of November 2nd, 2016, a thirty-four-year-old stay-at-home mother named Sherri Papini went for a jog near her home in Mountain Gate, a small community just outside of Redding, in Northern California’s Shasta County. She left her two young children at daycare, laced up her shoes, and headed out into a mild autumn afternoon. She did not come back.
Her husband, Keith Papini, returned from work that evening to find an empty house. The children were still at daycare — uncharacteristically uncollected. He used the Find My iPhone app to trace Sherri’s phone and drove to the location it showed: a roadside near Sunrise Drive, about a mile from their home. What he found there was her cell phone and her earbuds, lying in the dirt on the side of the road. Wound around the earbuds were several strands of blonde hair.
Sherri Papini was gone, and 22 days later she would reappear on the side of a road 150 miles from her home, looking gaunt, with a chain tied around her waist, and the word “exodus” branded into her back. It was a story that seemed to demand justice — and it would, eventually, get it, just not in the way anyone expected.

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Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief
License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at atrialbypodcast@gmail.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In November 1986, Helle Crafts was reported missing. Danish flight attendant and mother of three, Helle had been planning to leave her husband after discovering he'd been having an affair.
What followed was one of the most gruesome and forensically groundbreaking murder investigations in American history. Because there was no body. There was no crime scene. There was, however, a rented woodchipper, a freezer purchased just days before Helle vanished, and a witness who spotted a man feeding something into a chipper on the banks of the Housatonic River in the dead of a blizzard.
Investigators ultimately recovered bone fragments, a fingernail, strands of blonde hair, and a single crown from Helle's tooth — enough to piece together what Richard Crafts had done to his wife, and enough to put him away. He became the first person in Connecticut history to be convicted of murder without a body.
This is the story of Helle Crafts — and the case that changed forensic investigation forever.

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Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief
License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at atrialbypodcast@gmail.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On June 6, 1992, 19-year-old Suzie Streeter and 18-year-old Stacy McCall proudly walked across the stage and received their diplomas from Springfield, Missouri’s Kickapoo high school. Like any other teen on graduation day, the girls had a long night of party hopping ahead of them before they ended up back at Suzie’s house to spend the night before going to a waterpark with friends the next morning.
However, when friends Janelle Kirby and Mike Henson came to get them the next morning, they found the house empty. Stacy, Suzie, and Suzie’s mom, 47-year-old Sherill Levitt, were gone, all three of the women’s cars, keys, and purses were at the house.
Even stranger, the phone rang while they were there. Janelle answered, and a man's voice on the other end immediately launched into sexual remarks. To this day, the man remains unidentified, and Suzie, Stacy, and Sherill have never been seen again. This is the story of the Springfield Three.

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📧 Contact: atrialbypodcast@gmail.com

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief
License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at atrialbypodcast@gmail.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On June 6, 1992, 19-year-old Suzie Streeter and 18-year-old Stacy McCall proudly walked across the stage and received their diplomas from Springfield, Missouri’s Kickapoo high school. Like any other teen on graduation day, the girls had a long night of party hopping ahead of them before they ended up back at Suzie’s house to spend the night before going to a waterpark with friends the next morning.
However, when friends Janelle Kirby and Mike Henson came to get them the next morning, they found the house empty. Stacy, Suzie, and Suzie’s mom, 47-year-old Sherill Levitt, were gone, all three of the women’s cars, keys, and purses were at the house.
Even stranger, the phone rang while they were there. Janelle answered, and a man's voice on the other end immediately launched into sexual remarks. To this day, the man remains unidentified, and Suzie, Stacy, and Sherill have never been seen again. This is the story of the Springfield Three.

⭐ Support the show on Patreon for bonus content & ad-free listening! ⭐
https://www.patreon.com/c/ATRIALBYPODCAST

🎙️Sponsors, special offers & discount codes: https://www.atrialbypodcast.com/sponsors

Find us everywhere:
🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/atrialbypodcast
🌐 Website: https://atrialbypodcast.com
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558845693491
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atrialbypodcast
🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@atrialbypodcast
📧 Contact: atrialbypodcast@gmail.com

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief
License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at atrialbypodcast@gmail.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On August 4, 1981, twenty-year-old Cindy Anderson went to work as a legal secretary at a Toledo, Ohio law office. With just ten days left before she was set to leave for Bible college, vanished from work that day without a trace. When her bosses arrived that afternoon, her car was in the parking lot, but Cindy was gone. The romance novel Cindy had been reading was left open on her desk, as if she had been interrupted while reading it. The page it was open to was the only violent scene in the book, where the female protagonist is abducted and knifepoint.
In the weeks prior, she had been receiving deeply disturbing phone calls at the office and suffering from recurring nightmares about being attacked, prompting her employers to install an emergency buzzer at her desk and leading her to keep the office doors locked at all times, yet Cindy did not ring the buzzer the day she disappeared. To this day, Cindy has never been found.

⭐ Support the show on Patreon for bonus content & ad-free listening! ⭐
https://www.patreon.com/c/ATRIALBYPODCAST

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Find us everywhere:
🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/atrialbypodcast
🌐 Website: https://atrialbypodcast.com
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558845693491
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atrialbypodcast
🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@atrialbypodcast
📧 Contact: atrialbypodcast@gmail.com

Theme Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/mr-mischief
License code: MOYK9CTUWGH7BLCS

Sources for this episode will be posted at atrialbypodcast.com within 30 days of the publish date.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. While we research thoroughly and use credible, publicly available information, it should not be considered a legal or definitive authority. We cannot guarantee veracity or completeness. Neither host is a lawyer, journalist, or investigator — views expressed are personal and should not be taken as fact. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research. This podcast is not intended to harm, slander, or defame any individual, group, or organization. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Questions or concerns? Reach us at atrialbypodcast@gmail.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.